This invention relates to a latch for a swing door mounted to the rear of a truck body. Truck bodies are commonly provided with a pair of swing doors. Each of these doors is pivoted at a rear side corner of the body. They are pivoted together in a common plane to close the rear entry of the door, and are provided with locks to hold them closed. When unlocked they can be swung apart to give entry to the truck body.
Pivoted latches are well known for this purpose. They customarily include a vertical rotary shift with a latch tongue that fits into a latch pocket on the truck bed. The shafts are locked in an engaged position to keep the door secure when closed.
This is a common and useful closure which is encountered every day on the highways. However, it does have limitations. One of them is the inherent interference with some types of lift means which also are commonly provided at the rear of trucks. In particular, lift means which include vertical tracks at each side of the truck body have vertically movable components that move in the plane of conventional latch means of this type, and render this type of latch unsuitable for many applications.
It is an object of this invention to provide latch means for this type of closure which is compatible with it, and which does not interfere with vertically-movable parts of tailgate lifts.
It is another object of this invention to provide such latch means in a bi-stable configuration such that when not actively used for latching it can readily and reliably be pivoted out of the path of vertically-moving tailgate lift components.
It is another object of this invention to provide such latch means which can be used in vehicles of various widths.